The Australian Rugby Union will wait until the end of the Rugby Championship to address the Quade Cooper issue.

ARU chief executive John O’Neill told The Sydney Morning Herald that it was necessary to have ‘a cooling off period’ until the end of the competition. This statement by O’Neill comes days after Cooper slammed the ‘toxic environment’ of the Wallabies, and after he took aim at officials.

O’Neil plans to talk to Cooper after the Wallabies’ final match next Saturday. Several senior players will also come forward and address O’Neill once the campaign is completed.

‘Hopefully this will give everyone time to properly think through the situation,’ O’Neill said, adding that he did not want to disrupt the Wallabies’ campaign any further.

Cooper is contracted to the Reds for the next three seasons, but is yet to finalise the Wallabies component to that contract. He recently said that he didn’t want to play for the Wallabies again.